MxMO – Champagne
This months Mixology Monday is hosted by my good friend Gabriel who has chosen the theme of “Fizz!!”. Interestingly, aside from the Raspberry Loretto I’ve never featured a drink that features anything fizzy. This is mainly because, aside from the odd G&T and when I’m out in bars I don’t trust to make decent cocktails, I rarely use any carbonated ingredients in my drinks. I’m not really sure why that is, and it’s something I plan to remedy over the next few months.
I decided I would dive in to the topic and try a few cocktails made with the king of all fizzy ingredients – and one Gabriel apparently spent over a year consuming nothing but – Champagne. Now I know Champagne has already been a previous MxMO topic, but I wasn’t blogging back then so I’m going to run with it anyway. Until now I have only ever had Champagne on its own, so I was interested to see how it works with other ingredients.
Champagne Cocktail
- 1 sugar cube
- Generous dashing of Angostura bitters
- Top up with Champagne
- Put sugar cube and bitters in the bottom of a Champagne Flute and add Champagne. Garnish with a lemon twist.
The Champagne Cocktail provides an interesting twist on plain Champagne. The bitters provide an interesting hint of flavour and work surprisingly well with the main ingredient. The sugar lightens the Champagne, making this cocktail dangerously easy to drink. Not something I would go to regularly, but if I had Champagne on hand, I would probably go for this rather than plain Champers.
Kir Imperial
- ¼ shot Chambord (or other raspberry liqueur)
- Top up with Champagne
- Add Chambord to Champagne Flute and top up with Champagne.
As you might expect by the small amount added, the Chambord adds a very subtle berry flavour to the drink. They work nicely together, though the combination felt a little lacking. Ultimately, the Chambord doesn’t do much for the Champagne, and the Champagne somewhat overwhelms the Chambord, which leaves me to wonder what the point is. There are much better cocktails you can make with both these ingredients, so for me I’d skip this one entirely.
Posted in Aromatic Bitters, Chambord, Champagne, Mixology Monday, Recipes
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September 18th, 2007 at 5:11 am
A classic champagne cocktail is very much of my taste – though I would skip the lemon twist…
Kir Imperial (aka Champagne royal) depends much on the champagne – I did it with M&C Rose and it was fabulous.
Or you just drink a champagne with strawberry foam?
Cheers!
Dominik MJ
September 18th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
[...] jay’s champagne cocktails [...]
October 4th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
No French 75s?
October 5th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
B, that was the third cocktail on my list, but unfortunately I only had time for the first two. I will definitely return to Champagne cocktails again soon though…